I don’t know who originally said it, but someone once wrote how Jesus was born a refugee and died a criminal. Pretty accurate. The Jesus-as-refugee point has received a lot of attention lately as Syrians flee the country either making the crossing by boat or finally boarding a plane from temporary places like Lebanon. Lots of people either don’t want them or wonder why help them when we have people at home needing help? The best one, and I mean that sarcastically, involves those wanting to help only the Christian ones among the Syrian refugees.
When did compassion turn into an either/or concept?
I have not gone to Christmas mass in four years. I can’t say I miss it. I miss the people I know back at my old parish, the ones with a level head. I felt tired of the guilt and wanted to step back to strip away the ‘gunk’ of the last decade. Music always helped me to remember what I value about Christmas. ‘I was a stranger, and you welcomed me’ started with a birth to a two people, two nobodies really, in Bethlehem.
Unpaused Life 